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Monday, June 18, 2012

Book Tour Review/Giveaway/GuestPost: The Last Bastion Of The Living by Rhiannon Frater

The Bastion was humanity’s last hope against the fearsome undead creatures known as the Inferi Scourge. A fortified city with a high wall, surrounded by lush land rich with all the resources needed to survive, protected by high mountain summits, and a massive gate to secure the only pass into the valley, the Bastion became the last stronghold of the living on earth. But one fateful day, the gate failed and the Inferi Scourge destroyed the human settlements outside the walls and trapped the survivors inside the city. Now decades later, the last remaining humans are struggling to survive in a dying city as resources and hope dwindle.

Vanguard Maria Martinez has lived her whole life within the towering walls of steel. She yearns for a life away from the overcrowded streets, rolling blackouts, and food shortages, but there is no hope for anyone as long as the Inferi Scourge howl outside the high walls. Her only refuge from the daily grind is in the arms of her lover, Dwayne Reichardt, an officer in the Bastion Constabulary. Both are highly-decorated veterans of the last disastrous push against the Inferi Scourge. Their secret affair is her only happiness.

Then one day Maria is summoned to meet with a mysterious representative from the Science Warfare Division and is offered the opportunity to finally destroy the Inferi Scourge in the valley and close the gate. The rewards of success are great, but she will have to sacrifice everything, possibly even her life, to accomplish the ultimate goal of securing the future of humanity and saving it from extinction.

Review:

Humanities last chance for survival, lay on the shoulders of Maria Martinez. A solider and fighter in this new world, of humans(Bastion's) against zombies(Inferi Scourge). Maria is a solider who is brave enough to volunteer for a new mission to fight against the Scrourge, but this mission may turn out to be her last as she is made into a test subject, and finds herself changed, and these changes are not what she expected. After overcoming the changes, a defense team is lined up and others, like Maria arealso put through changes. The war to stop the Scourge is becoming more and more critical as time goes by.

The Bastion live in the city and valley, are protected by walls and gates. After a gate fails to close on the outermost perimeter, the valleybecomes overcome with the Scrourge. The valley, the main food source for the people living in the city is destroyed by the Scrourge, and now all of human kind is at risk of becoming extinct.With the Bastion's main food supply in the valley now damaged and overrun by the Scrourge thismission is the last resort in overtaking the Scrourge and sealing the gate that led them into the valley. Maria and her counterparts must try to stop and kill the Scrourge and seal the gate, before all is lost.

QuoteYour the first of your kind, you're our salvation. You and the others will give humanity a chance to live and thrive again.

Rhiannon Frater has done it again. She has managed to to take a subject that I usually find boring and made me enjoy it. Military reads are definitely not on the top of my list, but after reading The Last Bastion Of The Living you cannot help but think about the sacrifices the men and woman in the military have made to protect our countries. They are the true hero's and even through the governments bull, they outshine and become humanities greatest forces. Pairing up zombies against human kind is far from new, but Rhiannon always manages to throw a monkey wrench or two in the telling of a story and make it her own, with twists and turns along the way, that will have you thinking about the story long after you have finished it.5/5 Stars

Guest Post

Why I Self-Published THE LAST BASTION OF THE LIVING

By

Rhiannon Frater

I am a hybrid author. What does that mean? I am both self-published and traditionally published.The AS THE WORLD DIES trilogy was published by Tor (a major NYC publishing house) and several of my novels were published by a small press called Twisted Library.A lot of people assumed that once I landed a deal with a big publishing house I would stop self-publishing. The reality is that it’s in my best interests to self-publish and sell to major publishers for multiple reasons.

A lot of people believe that if you write a great story a publishing house will snap it up. It’s a common belief that a publishing house won’t turn down a story if it’s well-written, and that they only turn down the shoddy stuff. This isn’t actually the case. Both my agent and editor at Tor have told me that plenty of really great stories aren’t published for a variety of reasons. Most often it is because there is no market for that particular type of story, or it is too similar thematically to a book that is already being/has been published.If the publishing house already has a novel with a werewolf/vampire love story set on the moon, then they will pass on a novel with the same concept.If the publishing house thinks that there is no market for that type of book, again, they will take a pass.

My husband (who is also my business partner) and I discussed the pros and cons of maybe submitting to a smaller press or self-publishing for a few months. We swung back and forth between the two options before settling on self-publishing.

At this point in my writing career, I have learned the ins and outs of both sides of publishing. Self-publishing THE LAST BASTION OF THE LIVING made sense because the royalties from its sales will supplement our monthly income. Also, we’ll retain all rights to the novel should we decide to sell it later.We’ve already entered into an agreement for an audio book version of the novel which will be available on Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes within a month or two.

Furthermore, I have built up a really solid publishing team with Felicia Sullivan (an editor for Permuted Press) as my primary editor, Claudia McKinney of Phat Puppy Art for the cover artwork, Kody Boye as the interior formatter and copyeditor, Ashley of the Bookish Brunette for typography on the covers, and my husband for final book cover editing.Over the last few years, we’ve learned to produce a really solid book.

In the end I am very happy that we chose to self-publish THE LAST BASTION OF THE LIVING.Out of all the books I’ve written, it ranks #2 as my favorite.The process of bringing it to publication was very exciting and a lot of fun. Seeing the book slowly evolve and become a reality was an intimate experience because I had final say at every point in the process.In the end, the book is everything I hoped it would be.

I have enjoyed my relationship with Tor immensely and look forward to the mass market paperback editions of the AS THE WORLD DIES trilogy.I’m also thrilled to have had such a great experience with my editor at Tor and look forward to future projects. But it is also exciting that the publishing world has evolved to the point where a writer can publish a book that may not have seen the light of day otherwise and share their unique vision with their readers.

Rhiannon Frater is the award winning author of the AS THE WORLD DIES zombie trilogy and the author of several other books: the vampire novels PRETTY WHEN SHE DIES and THE TALE OF THE VAMPIRE BRIDE and the young-adult novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. The first two books in her zombie trilogy, THE FIRST DAYS and FIGHTING TO SURVIVE, and SEIGE are now, all available in bookstores.

I love Rhiannon!! I am so glad I sat in on that one chat (you know, that crazy one where everyone drank and talked about really nothing :)!!) b/c I got to hear Rhiannon and hear/see what a great sense of humor she has. Unfortunately for un-funny people, I judge a person on their humor and easy-going-ness.

Her post about self-pubbing vs. being picked up by "big publishing" is so enlightening! She comes from rare experience that she HAS been picked up by a house that I buy from waaaaay too often and completely respect. She also self-pubs like a fiend!!

Everyone who snubs self-pub books should definitely read this post and give 'em a chance. Thanks for hosting Ms. Frater.

Thank you for the review and the background on self-publishing! It is hard to imagine all the extra work that goes into bringing a book to life. You have given us a glimpse into those behind-the-scenes details. Thank you!Hybrid authors are great for hybrid readers! :)

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